1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC card having a control element such as a CPU. The present invention also relates to an IC card issuing apparatus for issuing the aforementioned IC card. Further, the present invention relates to an IC card issuing system including the aforementioned IC card and the aforementioned IC card issuing apparatus. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an IC card issuing method to issue the aforementioned IC card.
2. Description of the Related Art
An IC card is known as a portable information storage medium. The IC card has an IC chip inside thereof and a magnetic recording portion (magnetic stripes) on the outer side. The IC chip includes a CPU serving as an arithmetic processing portion, a non-volatile data memory, etc.
In general, an IC card is issued by a card issuing apparatus managed by a card issuing company. The card issuing apparatus stores various data required when an IC card is issued. The data required when an IC card is issued include IC command data, magnetic encode data, print data, etc.
The IC command data stored in the card issuing apparatus is input to the CPU of the IC card from the card issuing apparatus. The magnetic encode data stored in the card issuing apparatus is written into the magnetic recording portion of the IC card from the card issuing apparatus. Further, the print data stored in the card issuing apparatus is printed as an image on the surface of the IC card from the card issuing apparatus.
The aforementioned process executed in accordance with the input of the IC command data to the CPU of the IC card is one of the most important processes of the IC card issuing processes. The IC card (the CPU in the IC card) returns a response in accordance with the process result of the input IC command data. The card issuing apparatus determines whether the command based on the IC command data has been successively executed or not based on the response returned from the IC card.
Further, to retain a high level of security, a plurality of keys are set as a key group in the data memory of the IC card. Processes of data encapsulation and data validity confirmation are executed by utilizing the key group. Setting of the key group in the data memory is executed on the basis of a key setting command, which is one of the IC command data issued by the card issuing apparatus. The key group to be set is input by an operator through the keyboard of the card issuing apparatus.
However, the key group input by the operator is not necessarily correct. Further, the key group input by the operator and set in the IC card cannot be read out of the IC card. This is to prevent the important key group necessary for an authentication process from externally leaking. Moreover, when the key is set in the IC card by the card issuing apparatus, if the key is set in the IC card, a response representing normal end is returned from the IC card, regardless of whether the set key is correct or not. In other words, a problem is that there is no means to confirm whether the key set in the IC card is a normal correct key or not.
Based on the above problem, an object of the present invention is to provide an IC card, an IC card issuing apparatus, an IC card issuing system and an IC card issuing method, which can prevent a plurality of keys to retain the security of the IC card from being incorrectly set in the IC card.